The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 12, Issue 34
Hey folks, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. It’s hard to believe that August is almost over and September is just around the corner. That said, I’m very much liking the 60-degree weather we’re having right now. We’re inching closer and closer to hoodie weather.
September is National Preparedness Month. That being the case, I have a few giveaways planned throughout the month. At least one of them will happen through this newsletter. One or two others will run in my Real World Prepping group on Facebook. If you’re on Facebook and not a member yet, you might want to join.
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Generally speaking, when people are talking about caches, 99% of the time they’re talking about a PVC tube filled with some amount of survival gear that’s buried in a location known only to the prepper. There are other types of caches, but the buried version is definitely the most commonly discussed.
I think the first time I heard about burying caches was in a Ragnar Benson book I read in the mid-1980s. Even back then, the recommendation was to use PVC tubes, just like you’ll read about today.
Even 40 or so years after first reading about them, I’m still on the fence about their overall importance in a prep plan. On the one hand, having a backup supply of necessary gear is never a bad idea. But, there’s so much that can go wrong that it feels like it’s really a Hail Mary situation more than anything else.
--The cache could be found by someone else and taken.
--The cache location could be dug up for new construction.
--You might not remember exactly where it is and never find it again.
--The seals on the container may fail, allowing in moisture to foul the contents.
--You might not be able to reach the location for any number of reasons.
--You might get there, successfully dig it up, then be unable to open it.
--You might be discovered whilst burying it or digging it up.
Granted, any prep plan is subject to the fickle finger of fate. But still, this one seems like it has more going against it than for it.
I guess if I had to make a recommendation, I’d go with this. Consider a survival cache to be an extreme last resort option for resupply. It’s the backup to the backup’s backup. Never put anything in a cache that you’re not comfortable losing forever, just in case you never see it again.
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Here are links to some of my recent articles on GAT Daily. All are free to read.
Workplace Emergency Kits – Be Ready to Sit Things Out
Getting the Team Together – Talking to Family About Prepping
Review: 5.11 Tactical’s Allhaula 30L Backpack and Waist Pack
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In the last several days, I’ve seen at least three different posts on social media about the inadvisability of being a “lone wolf” when it comes to disaster planning. I’m glad to see others talking about it. I was beating that drum over a decade ago and there weren't many others jumping on that bandwagon back then. Come to think of it, my very first prepper article in print was on what I called Lone Wolf Syndrome. It appeared in the debut issue of Survivalist Magazine.
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In many survival manuals, there is typically mention of keeping cordage in your kit that you can use for snares. They may also include instructions for carving different sorts of triggers, such as the (in)famous figure four trigger.
It’s important to understand that trapping involves far more than just setting out a few cleverly hidden nooses and then collecting breakfast in the morning.
You have to be able to discern the right locations for traps. This involves recognizing animal tracks as well as learning about their normal behavior patterns. This isn’t something you’re going to pick up on the fly. It takes a lot of learning and hard-won experience.
Also worth noting is that it can take a lot of traps to achieve any real success. Setting out one or two isn’t going to get you there. Set out as many as you possibly can in a large area to increase your odds.
Trapping is an exercise in patience. That means that if you’re traveling, such as in a bug out situation, this is far from an ideal method of acquiring food.
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Our hike over the weekend was a visit to Linn Nature Park, which is near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. They have a few miles of trails to explore. Lots of great vistas.
Survival Tip – Empathy and Tact
I've long felt that prepping isn't strictly limited to disasters. It's about making life easier in all aspects. That includes interpersonal relationships. The smoother things are with the people you interact with daily, the easier everything else becomes.
Tact and empathy are essential components of personal communication. We use tact as a tool to soften the blow when delivering bad news. We’re empathetic toward our audience and so we want to avoid unnecessary cruelty.
To a large degree, it comes down to your goal with the message you’re delivering. If you want the person’s behavior to change or you wish to influence a decision they’re making, empathy and tact can go a long way. On the other hand, if your goal is more self-serving, such as you want to feel superior to the other person or demean them in some way, then a harshly delivered message is definitely the way to go.
Think about it like this. Do you want them to truly hear your message and respond to it in a meaningful way? Or do you want them to just mull over how shitty you were to them?
Before someone jumps into the comments to fire back at me about this, let me share that for this discussion we’re not talking about emergency situations where reaction time is crucial. We’re not ordering people to evacuate a burning building or some such. Keep in mind that if you treat every situation as an emergency, then people will quickly learn to ignore your urgency.
Backwoods Survival Guide Magazine
For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for Backwoods Survival Guide magazine. Here is the cover for the current issue available in stores right now.
You can find Backwoods Survival Guide just about anywhere magazines are sold, including:
Walmart
Publix
Walgreens
Rite Aid
CVS
Tractor Supply
Fleet Farm
Barnes & Noble
Subscriptions are available here.
Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?
I am always just an email away - jim@survivalweekly.com.